Saudi Arabia The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

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Saudi Arabia is sometimes called "The Land of The Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Mecca and Medina
Present day Saudi Arabia is the location of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (c. 570 C.E.) in Mecca, and of the religion of Islam. Muslims believe that God (Allah) sent His final revelation "in clear Arabic," in the form of the holy Koran, through His Messenger, Muhammad. This occurred first in and around Mecca and then in Medina beginning in 622 C.E., which marks the first year of the Islamic era (1 A.H.). By the time Muhammad died (in Medina in 632 C.E.), almost all communities in Arabia had declared loyalty to him as a political leader and to Islam. Muslims view Muhammad not as the creator of a new religion, but as the restorer of the original, uncorrupted monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Islam's first caliph Abu Bakr completed the process of conversion. Arabian converts carried the religion throughout the Middle East and north Africa. The rise of Islam and the subsequent religious importance of the Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina (two of the holiest places in Islam), have given the rulers of this territory significant influence beyond the peninsula.
First Saudi State

First Saudi State
The first Saudi state was established in 1744, when leader Sheikh Mohammed ibn Abd al Wahhab settled in Diriyah and Prince Mohammed Ibn Saud agreed to support and espouse his cause. After studying in the Hijaz and Iraq, Sheikh Muhammad Al Abd al-Wahab (who died in 1792), returned to Najd and preached and wrote against practices that deviated from Islam. He urged his followers, who became known as muwahidun ("unitarians"), to end polytheistic practices and adhere strictly to the Koran and the Hadith (the sayings and doings of the Prophet). A new leadership structure placed Al Saud in the position of umara (princes, rulers) and Al Abd al-Wahab (also known as Al Sheikh) in the position of ulama (learned in religion).
The movement involved military struggle, preaching, the establishment of Koranic schools, the setting up of new communities, and the creation of a bureaucratic state that ruled in Najd. The House of Saud, with other allies, rose to become the dominant state in Arabia controlling most of the Nejd, but not either coast. This Saudi state lasted for about 75 years. Rulers of the first Saudi state were: Imam Mohammed Ibn Saud (1726 –1765), Imam Abdul Aziz Ibn Mohammed Ibn Saud (1765 – 1803), Imam Saud Ibn Abdul Aziz Ibn Mohammed Ibn Saud (1803 – 1814) and Imam Abdullah bin Saud (1814 – 1818).
Concerned at the growing power of the Saudis the Ottoman Sultan instructed Mohammed Ali Pasha to reconquer the area. Ali sent his sons Tusun Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha who were successful in routing the Saudi forces in 1818.
Second and third Saudi states
The House of Saud returned to power in the second Saudi state in 1824. The state lasted until 1891 when it succumbed to the Al Rashid dynasty of Ha'il. In 1902, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud captured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty's ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family. Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hejaz between 1913 and 1926. On January 8, 1926, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud became the King of Hejaz. On January 29, 1927, he took the title King of Nejd (his previous Nejdi title was sultan). By the Treaty of Jeddah, signed on May 20, 1927, the United Kingdom recognized the independence of Abdul Aziz's realm (then known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd). In 1932, these regions were unified as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Oil discovered
The discovery of oil on March 3, 1938, transformed the country. Development programs, which were delayed due to the onset of the Second World War in 1939, began in earnest in 1946 and by 1949 production was in full swing. Oil has provided Saudi Arabia with economic prosperity and a great deal of leverage in the international community. Boundaries with Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait were established by a series of treaties negotiated in the 1920s, with two neutral zones created, one with Iraq and the other with Kuwait.
Isolationist policy

The founder of modern Saudi Arabia, King Abdul Aziz, converses with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on board a ship returning from the Yalta Conference in 1945.
Internationally Abdul Aziz initially chose to follow an isolationist policy. He refused to allow Saudi Arabia to join the League of Nations, and he chose to leave his kingdom on only three occasions from 1916 until his death in 1953. Eventually however Abdul Aziz acceded to the realities of world politics and in 1945 Saudi Arabia became a founding member of the Arab League and joined the United Nations.
Aware of the difficulties facing other regional absolute rulers reliant on extended family networks, Abdul Aziz took steps to provide that his eldest living son, Saud, would become king, but that he would be required to work closely with his more financially and diplomatically astute brother, Faisal.
Saud and Faisal
Saud ascended to the throne on his father's death in 1953, and reigned for 11 years. But by the early 1960s, the kingdom was in jeopardy due to Saud's economic mismanagement and his failure to deal with a regional challenge from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Because of fiscal difficulties, King Saud had been persuaded in 1958 to delegate direct conduct of Saudi Government affairs to his half-brother Faisal as prime minister. In October 1962, Faisal outlined a broad reform program, stressing economic development. In 1964 Saud was forced to abdicate in favor of Faisal, who continued to serve as prime minister. Subsequent kings followed this practice.
Neighboring wars
The mid-1960s saw external pressures generated by Saudi-Egyptian differences over Yemen. When civil war broke out in 1962 between Yemeni royalists and republicans, Egyptian forces entered Yemen to support the new republican government, while Saudi Arabia backed the royalists. Tensions subsided only after 1967, when Egypt withdrew its troops from Yemen.
In 1965, there was an exchange of territories between Saudi Arabia and Jordan in which Jordan gave up a relatively large area of inland desert in return for a small piece of sea-shore near Aqaba.
Saudi forces did not participate in the Six-Day (Arab-Israeli) War of June 1967, but the government later provided annual subsidies to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to support their economies. During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Saudi Arabia participated in the Arab oil boycott of the United States and the Netherlands. A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Saudi Arabia had joined other member countries in moderate oil price increases beginning in 1971. After the 1973 war, the price of oil rose substantially, dramatically increasing Saudi Arabia's wealth and political influence.